New game on ISPO certification raises awareness of certification challenges

In August 2019, the Indonesian Team played its new ISPO game with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia.

In the game, the officials played the role of smallholders or of the government. Very soon, the smallholders started complaining to the government about the ISPO certification (Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil). They did not understand why they should comply with it, and what benefits they would obtain. Also they did not know whether, and how, certification would affect prices.

This session just proved once more how powerful the approach is. It empowers participants, it frees speech. It helps grasp the big picture, the different perspectives and the complexity of the system. The participants found out by themselves why the implementation of ISPO is so challenging.

Participant Ms Ita Munardini, the head of plantation processing and marketing, said in her closing remark that “this game is positive, reflects a portrait of ISPO with its components, offers us to reveal problems, a useful tool to further refine plantation development policies”.